Portrait of the wife

Józef Mehoffer's wife Jadwiga was often his model, appearing in both stand-alone portraits and complex figural compositions, with Dziwny ogród [Strange Garden] (1903) at the forefront. Between 1915 and 1923 the artist created a series of drawings he called ‘Fashion Revue’. Jadwiga also posed for these works, dressed in the style of the period in unusual hats, boas, brooches, ostrich feathers, frills and capes. The oil portrait from 1915 is in keeping with the idea, developed over the years, of making portrait portraits showing different, rich costumes. The figure, portrayed in close-up in the left profile against the background of crimson red, wears a luxuriant fur coat over a greenish blouse fastened with a decorative brooch. Her head is crowned by a large fur hat with a specific, sharply defined line decorated with feathers. Developed throughout their lives together, the gallery of portraits of Jadwiga is a lasting testimony to the admiration and preservation of her delicate facial features and documents the vast panorama of fashionable costumes of the first half of the 20th century.

In his early work, Mehoffer sought an effect of synthesis, decorativeness, and ornamental patterns brought out with a flexible, ‘Art Nouveau’ line and intense colour, shaping the stylistics of his painting as a fusion of observed natural forms. In a later phase, the richness of forms extracted with a clear contour was replaced by a thorough analysis of materials, textures and their painterly interpretation. The portrait of his wife from 1915 fits into the painterly programme of thorough observation and artistic processing. The delicate complexion and pale skin of Jadwiga's uncovered neck emanate intensity and sensuality – thanks to the juxtaposition with the varied, rich and carefully elaborated structure of the materials and fabrics of the dress. The portrait acquires the character of an eye, of closeness – of intense contact with the model.

Marcin Lachowski